You know ever since I lived over in Laos and learned a little about raising metal, I've wanted to do the same here in the U.S.A. I never got that stump that I felt I needed to make it all happen. 20 or so years later I finally bought a stump and am motivated to start using it. Hopefully I can find the time to start learning this again. I love doing it so hopefully I can get some practice in. As yo can see in the image the first school I went to to learn silversmithing. I worked on the bowl for a long time over that stump and although I made it too thin by the end, it was my first one and I love how it turned out. We started by melting a bunch of silver into a button. Then from that point on it was all hammering and annealing. First hammer out the disc and then start to raise it. Then chase it at the end. I hope to do this process again because it brings back so many memories, but for now I think I'll buy the sheet to save time. Either way I now have a stump and a few hammers to get going. This was a long time waiting, so let's see what can come of it now.